Social Media for Financial Advisors: How to Grow Your Brand and Client Base

Over 245 million Americans use social media, making up nearly three-fourths of the population. On average, these users spend more than two hours a day scrolling through Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok, and other platforms.

While social media still features its fair share of selfies and cute cat videos, it has also become a powerful source of financial education, with TikTok’s #FinTok hashtag generating over 4.7 billion views. As a financial advisor, this trend highlights a valuable opportunity. By maintaining an active, professional presence on these platforms, you can meet investors where they’re at, answer the questions they’re actively searching for, and organically attract new prospects.

So, which social media platforms matter most for today’s advisors? And how can you build a social strategy that actually drives growth? Below, we’ll break down the best practices for social media marketing for financial advisors.

Why Social Media Matters for Today’s Financial Advisors

The average financial advisor is 56 years old. As a result, seasoned advisors have spent decades managing their practices without a social media strategy. As such, they may assume they don’t need to market on these channels to be successful.

While referrals remain the strongest source of new business for financial advisors, social media has become a driving force in consumer decision-making. Over 60% of adults under 35 seek investment guidance on social platforms, and nearly 80% of Gen Z and Millennials use Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or LinkedIn to learn about financial topics.

If your advisory firm doesn’t have an active presence on these platforms, many prospects may overlook you for savvier competitors. This visibility gap will only widen as more young investors inherit wealth.

Learn More: How to Attract Wealthy Clients: 11 Financial Advisor Strategies

Benefits of Social Media Marketing for Financial Advisors

So, why is social media so valuable for today’s financial advisors? Put simply, a thoughtful social media marketing strategy helps you:

• Build trust through accessible education
• Scale your visibility beyond referrals
• Humanize your brand with authentic content
• Reach up-and-coming investors before they inherit assets
• Reinforce your credibility at every step of the client journey

Learn More: Your 2025 Financial Advisor Marketing Plan: 10 Steps to Success

7 Steps to Succeed at Social Media Marketing For Financial Advisors

With these benefits in mind, let’s walk through seven practical steps to build a strong social media marketing strategy in 2026.

Step #1: Clarify Your Niche

Financial advisors who thrive on social media aren’t necessarily the ones who post the most. Instead, they’re the ones who post with purpose.

If lead generation is your aim, you must curate an online presence that attracts your ideal clients’ attention and earns their trust. Before you draft your first post, get clear on:

• Who you serve (retirees, business owners, physicians, young professionals, etc.)
• The most common financial challenges they face
• The questions they ask you most frequently
• How your firm uniquely helps them solve those problems

Once you define these details, you can approach social media with a clear audience in mind and speak directly to the types of clients you want to attract.

Learn More: How to Attract and Retain Clients as a Financial Advisor

Step #2: Determine Which Platforms Align Best With Your Target Audience

Since new social platforms rise to popularity every few years, keeping up with every one of them can feel impossible. Fortunately, you don’t need to be active everywhere. In fact, spreading yourself too thin may dilute your message and weaken your impact.

For the best results, focus on the platforms where your ideal clients spend the most time. Here’s a quick overview of the major platforms and their primary demographics:

• LinkedIn is a popular hub for professionals, making it the perfect place for advisors to share thought leadership content, provide industry commentary, and network with peers in adjacent fields.
• Facebook is the most widely used platform for Gen X and Baby Boomer investors. It’s ideal for firm updates, local visibility, and relationship-based content.
• YouTube draws avid learners of all ages, with over 65% of surveyed respondents saying they visit this platform for financial education. It’s a great place to share detailed tutorials, market explainers, and in-depth educational videos.
• Instagram remains one of the most widely used platforms among investors under 40, especially Millennials and Gen Z. It’s ideal for short-form videos, behind-the-scenes content, and visually driven education.
• TikTok skews heavily toward younger demographics. It’s best-suited for brief, digestible financial tips and trend-based content.
• X (Twitter) is used across age ranges and is a go-to channel for real-time industry commentary, quick takes on market news, and other timely insights.

Step #3: Polish Your Profiles

Once you determine which platforms deserve your attention, the next step is refining your profiles. Just like your website, these profiles should convey your firm’s professionalism while still feeling warm and relatable.

You can accomplish this balance by:

• Featuring professional branding – Your profiles should look consistent across every platform, so make sure to use the same high-quality headshots, branded banner image, and formatting conventions. Next, ensure that your contact information and website link are accurate and easy to find.
• Writing a clear, client-focused bio – When new viewers view your profile, they’ll look at your bio to learn who you serve and whether you can help address their financial challenges. Use this space to clearly identify your target audience, explain your core value proposition, and highlight the key problems you help clients overcome.
• Showcasing your most valuable content – Several social media platforms allow you to pin specific posts to the top of your profiles so viewers can see them first. Use this space to feature your strongest content, such as your most engaging educational post, a brief introductory video, or a “Start Here” guide for new followers, to shape followers’ first impressions and help prospects understand who you are within seconds.
  
• Ensuring proper compliance – Finally, keep compliance top of mind as you curate your profiles. Consult with your compliance department to determine which disclosures to include in your bio or About section and make sure all of your claims are accurate, factual, and non-promissory.

Learn More: Form ADV: Full 2025 Guide for Investment Advisors

Step #4: Commit to a Consistent Posting Cadence

After perfecting your profiles, you can start sharing content on a regular basis. Here’s a general guideline for how often you should post on each platform:

• LinkedIn / Facebook: 2–4 posts per week
• Instagram: 3–5 posts per week
• YouTube: 1–4 videos per month
• TikTok: Several posts per week

While the ideal posting frequency varies by platform, every major channel rewards consistency. Additionally, maintaining a steady posting cadence keeps you top-of-mind with prospects.

To make consistent posting more manageable, you can

• Batch-create content once per week or month so you don’t have to start from scratch with every post.
• Schedule posts in advance using a social media tool, so you can stay visible without interrupting your workflow.
• Repurpose existing content by changing its format (for example, you can transform a video into a carousel or a blog excerpt into a LinkedIn post).
• Keep a running list of post ideas based on your prospects’ questions and recent client conversations.

Step #5: Create Content That Builds Trust, Authority, and Connection

With your posting schedule in place, you can finally start sharing content that helps position you as a knowledgeable, approachable financial professional. An effective content strategy should include a mix of:

• Short-form videos
• Long-form videos
• Photos
• Carousels
• Infographics
• Podcast episodes
• Live Q&A sessions

Along with exploring different formats, use your content to achieve a combination of these three goals: educating your audience, humanizing your firm, and inviting genuine conversation.

Learn More: Short-Form Content Marketing for Financial Advisors

Educational Content: Build Your Advisor Authority

Educational content should make up the majority of your posts, and fortunately, it’s often the easiest to create. Simply reflect on the topics you explain to clients every day and turn those explanations into informative posts.

For example, you can share:

• Timely explanations about market changes (interest rate cuts, inflation, etc.)
• Quick tips that address common financial scenarios
• Practical checklists and simple “how-to” guides
• Answers to your followers’ most common FAQs
• Visual aids that simplify complex topics (charts, graphs, infographics, etc.)

As social media users search for financial information, these posts can help you capture their attention and build a foundation of trust.

Personal Content: Humanizing Your Firm

You may assume that posting anything personal online is unprofessional. However, the right type of personal content can humanize your brand, helping prospects see you as a real person rather than a cold corporation.

Authenticity doesn’t mean exposing every detail of your private life or taking strong stances on polarizing topics. Instead, it can be as simple as sharing:

• A behind-the-scenes look at your office or team
• Why you chose to become a financial advisor
• A challenge you overcame in your career
• A lesson from a valued mentor
• Reflections on a recent career milestone
• Your community or volunteer involvement
• Candid stories about financial lessons you learned in your early years

This type of content can build trust without crossing personal boundaries. It can also help prospects feel like they “know” you, which is often the deciding factor when they must choose between two equally qualified advisors.

Engagement-Driven Content That Sparks Conversation

With social media marketing, it’s surprisingly easy to overlook the “social” aspect. Many advisors fall into the trap of simply posting content into the void. However, a successful strategy should spark engagement amongst your followers, prospects, clients, and colleagues.

You can garner more interaction on your posts by asking your audience questions, such as “What’s the greatest financial concern you’re facing right now?” or sharing polls to find out what topics your audience is most eager to learn about. You should also get in the habit of finishing posts with simple prompts, like:

• “What’s your take?”
• “Do you agree?”
• “Which option would you choose?”

Not only can these tactics encourage dialogue, but they can also help you identify what topics your followers want you to cover next.

Pro Tip: Don’t forget to reply to comments and join discussions on other people’s posts. Not only can this build mutual rapport, but it can also boost your visibility as viewers see your name, read your insights, and click your profile to learn more about you.

Step #6: Tailor Your Strategy to Each Platform

Every social media platform has its own culture, norms, and audience expectations. Thus, posting the exact same thing everywhere can make your content feel out of place. Instead, you should modify your content so it feels native and relevant on each channel.

For example, if you recently uploaded a longer YouTube video breaking down the current mortgage market, cut it into several short-form clips to share on Instagram and TikTok throughout the week.

Or maybe you posted a photo album on Facebook from a recent industry conference you attended. You can showcase your community involvement on LinkedIn by sharing a single photo from the event paired with a caption that highlights your key takeaways and tags fellow attendees.

Step #7: Measure What Matters

As with any digital marketing initiative, tracking your performance is essential. Fortunately, most social platforms offer built-in analytics dashboards and professional reporting tools that make it easy to monitor your results over time.

As you review your metrics, keep in mind that they don’t all carry equal weight. Many advisors fixate on follower count, but follower growth alone doesn’t tell you whether your content is actually resonating. The following metrics provide a much clearer picture of whether your social media strategy is working:

• Engagement rate
• Comments per post
• Shares
• Click-through rate
• Profile visits
• Saves
• Video watch time

Review these metrics monthly and evaluate what types of posts are gaining the most traction. After that, adjust your content cadence, topics, and formats accordingly.

Learn More: Digital Marketing for Financial Advisors: How to Generate Leads Online in 2026

Strengthen Your Social Media Marketing Strategy With Alden Investment Group

In summary, you don’t need expensive gear or over-the-top production to succeed on social media. What truly drives results for financial advisors is clarity, consistency, and compliant communication.

If managing your social media strategy on your own feels overwhelming, you’re not alone. A 2024 industry report found that 85% of advisors struggle to carve out enough time for marketing. The good news is that you don’t have to choose between serving your clients and building your digital presence.

At Alden Investment Group, we support independent advisors with a comprehensive suite of resources, including access to vetted digital marketing specialists who understand compliance, brand positioning, and platform-specific best practices. With these experts overseeing your social media strategy, you can elevate your online presence without adding excessive work to your plate.

Want to learn more? Contact Alden Investment Group today!

Sources:

Sprinklr. Social Media in America: 10 Stats that are Changing in 2025.
https://www.sprinklr.com/blog/social-media-in-america/

DataReportal. Global Social Media Statistics. 
https://datareportal.com/social-media-users

Franklin Madison. The #FinTok Phenomenon.
https://franklin-madison.com/insights/articles/the-fintok-phenomenon/

Investopedia. Essential Tips for Aspiring Young Financial Advisors.
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/financial-advisors/101415/top-tips-young-financial-advisors.asp

Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. How Americans Use Social Media for Financial Advice.
https://www.philadelphiafed.org/consumer-finance/how-americans-use-social-media-for-financial-advice

Broadridge. Financial Advisor Marketing Trends Report.
https://info.advisorstream.com/financial-advisor-marketing-trends-report-2024